Engine Capital Management LP Takes $14.77 Million Position in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL)

Engine Capital Management LP bought a new stake in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 331,597 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $14,773,000. QuidelOrtho accounts for about 2.7% of Engine Capital Management LP's portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Engine Capital Management LP owned about 0.49% of QuidelOrtho as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 19.6% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,238,826 shares of the company's stock worth $500,690,000 after buying an additional 1,840,667 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in QuidelOrtho by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,817,412 shares of the company's stock valued at $303,716,000 after purchasing an additional 764,900 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in QuidelOrtho by 71.7% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,447,446 shares of the company's stock valued at $153,584,000 after purchasing an additional 1,439,293 shares during the last quarter. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC boosted its position in QuidelOrtho by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC now owns 1,977,697 shares of the company's stock valued at $88,106,000 after purchasing an additional 100,522 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in QuidelOrtho by 14.0% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,406,654 shares of the company's stock valued at $62,666,000 after purchasing an additional 173,174 shares during the last quarter. 99.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group dropped their price objective on QuidelOrtho from $45.00 to $29.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded QuidelOrtho from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $44.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on QuidelOrtho from $38.00 to $25.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. StockNews.com lowered QuidelOrtho from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, February 15th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on QuidelOrtho from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, QuidelOrtho has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $44.33.

QuidelOrtho Price Performance

Shares of QDEL traded down $1.64 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $33.87. The company's stock had a trading volume of 496,241 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,067,785. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $31.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.12 and a beta of 0.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. QuidelOrtho Co. has a one year low of $23.77 and a one year high of $49.45.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $692.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $694.97 million. QuidelOrtho had a positive return on equity of 3.78% and a negative net margin of 72.84%. QuidelOrtho's quarterly revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.44 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that QuidelOrtho Co. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About QuidelOrtho

QuidelOrtho Corporation provides diagnostic testing solutions. The company operates through Labs, Transfusion Medicine, Point-of-Care, and Molecular Diagnostics business units. The Labs business unit provides clinical chemistry laboratory instruments and tests that measure target chemicals in bodily fluids for the evaluation of health and the clinical management of patients; immunoassay laboratory instruments and tests, which measure proteins as they act as antigens in the spread of disease, antibodies in the immune response spurred by disease, or markers of proper organ function and health; testing products to detect and monitor disease progression across a spectrum of therapeutic areas; and specialized diagnostic solutions.